Is it just me or is the picture on the Steve Madden link Carrie posted the same exact picture of Louboutin’s shoe, but with the red sole photoshopped out?

And that is indeed the exact conclusion of the Manolo, that the graphic designers at the Steve Madden have simply stolen the Saks Fifth Avenue picture, applied the computer, and… hey presto! It is now the Steve Madden shoe!

Of the course, the other Steve Madden Becks Booties, in the different colors, required slightly more complex photoshopping mad skillz…

Obviously, someone at the Steve Madden has taken the most unethical short cut to fooling the buyer

And naturally, this leaves the Manolo wondering exactly what the Becks looks like, not that he would purchase any shoe that so clearly ripped off the original, and is being sold by such scoundrels.

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Carrie is absolutely correct—just look at the bow on the laces. It’s an easy thing to do in Photoshop, as the subsequent illustration shows. We can see it on internet catalogs and print catalogs when the item is being shown in 5 different colorways, all they did was use the process outlined above to show the same model wearing the same t-shirt in white, black, blue, red and pink.

Hmm, Maybe I am the only one that didn’t know this fact, but upon looking up Steve Madden on Wikipedia, it seems that he is actually a criminal. He was apparantly convicted and sentenced to 41 months prison in 2002 for stock manipulation, money laundering, and securities fraud.

Steve Madden is truly the scummiest of scumballs, in my opinion. He has been known to tell *real* shoe designers, to their face, “I’m stealing your design.” Unfortunately, his unethical behavior is legal at this time.

If you look at the picture of the green one it’s missing the reflection of the lace in the shiny part of the shoe. The other three pictures have the exact same reflection in different colors, but it’s missing in the green one altogether.

wow- that really is pathetic… seems like a company like Steve Madden could have at least taken the time & budget to buy the original shoe, re-photograph it and THEN send it to their china factory to knock it off. However, in defense of the poor graphic artist who sold his sole (haha- pun intended) for his paycheck, it is rather tricky to add color INTO black in a photograph like that.

Now, I’m not a big fan of that particular shoe style to begin with, but the photo-shopped ones look absolutely awful. What were they thinking? Surely the cost of photographing a few shoes isn’t so much that it makes up for the loss of sales due to crappy pictures — let alone the further tarnishing on their company image!

I picked up a pair of Steve Madden shoes tonight, and as cute as they were, I couldn’t even bring myself to try them on. The pair of Steve Madden shoes that I do have are so cute, but the heel isn’t balanced right so they make my ankles turn out the moment I get lazy with my ankle muscles. That’s what I get for buying cheap shoes.

I am sure I’m a minority here when I will say – god bless Steve Madden. There are many people out there, actually MAJORITY of people – that simply cannot afford $500-$2000 shoes. Also, with all the hunger and poverty out there, I think it’s horrendous to charge OR to pay such a price for a pair of shoes, no matter how gorgeous they are. I love Louboutins – it’s one of my favorite designers – but I buy his shoes on ebay for a huge discount. Recently I bought Oh Deers – that were very close in match. Maybe you will call me a “fake”…but you know what? With the money I saved, I can afford a bigger apartment, and have put money in my son’s savings account!!! Just today I bought two gorgeous pairs of Steve Madden shoes that 100% resemble certain designer’s shoes – and I’m happy! I have gorgeous shoes for a fraction of the price.

Also, I agree that Steve Maddens are not super comfortable on the leg, but PLLLLLLLZ don’t tell me that Louboutins are – argggh they KILL my feet, and all these socialites that wear his stuff should thank him for their BUNIONS. Podiatrist anyone? My husband is one…care to make an appointment? ;-))))

DID ANYONE SEE THE LATES THAT sTEVE SIGNED A DEAL THROUGH JONES TO MAKE L.E.I FOR WAL-MART. WITH STEVE MADDEN SHOES IN TARGET AND SOON TO BE WAL-MART WHY SHOULD WE BUY HIS SHOES WHEN WE CAN BUY HIS KNOCKOFFS AT TARGET AND WAL-MART FOR 50 LESS!!!!

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